Laura Forbes
Associate Professor
College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition
About
Dr. Forbes' research program has two topic areas; nutrition during pregnancy and practice-based research in dietetics. Much of Dr. Forbes’ pregnancy-related work is related to her role as a nutrition expert and collaborator on the APrON Study. The APrON Study is a pregnancy cohort study in Alberta that started in 2009 and continues to collect data about these parents and children as they grow.
The overarching goal of this project is to examine the effects of dietary intake during pregnancy on the mental and physical health of mothers and the health and development of the babies. Dr. Forbes's APrON study projects have focused on the effects of dietary sugar intake during pregnancy on the health of mothers and infants; particularly weight gain, birth weight, gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.
Dr. Forbes conducts dietetic practice-based research in collaboration with dietitians working in the Waterloo Regional Health Network and has worked on a variety of projects including projects about screening cancer patients for malnutrition, examining body composition in renal dialysis patients and changing tube feeding methodologies to decrease malnutrition in ICU patients Dr. Forbes is always interested in collaborating with practicing dietitians, so if you’re a dietitian with a research question we could answer together, get in touch!
Education
- Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Alberta 2011-2012
- Dietetic Internship, Alberta Health Services, 2010
- PhD (Nutrition and Metabolism) - University of Alberta, 2009
- BScNH, Acadia University, 2004